The United States and Israel jointly developed the Flame espionage malware to collect information that would be useful in disrupting Iran's nuclear program, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed Western officials with knowledge of the operation.

While important, the report isn't entirely unexpected. Researchers said last week they had conclusive proof that developers of Flame collaborated with developers of Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated computer worm that targeted uranium enrichment operations in Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. A week before that, an in-depth article in the New York Times provided the first confirmation that Stuxnet was created by the US and Israel before they ultimately lost control of it. Flame was part of "Olympic Games," the same classified effort that spawned Stuxnet, Washington Post journalists Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and Julie Tate reported Tuesday.

Still, the report is the first to cite unnamed officials saying Flame was jointly devised by personnel in the National Security Agency, the CIA, and Israel's military. As such, it has helped to flesh out details of what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of computer-aided sabotage of a US adversary. And like the confirmation that Stuxnet received the explicit backing from two US presidents, the latest confirmation could harm US interests by touching off a cyber-arms race and making it harder for US officials to argue against their use.

Flame came to light after Iranian engineers detected malware attacks targeting the country's oil refineries. According to Tuesday's report, "The disruption was directed by Israel in a unilateral operation that apparently caught its US partners off guard, according to US and Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity." The article goes on to say the episode was what prompted Iran to learn it was being targeted by Flame. "Some US intelligence officials were dismayed that Israel's unilateral incursion led to the discovery of the virus, prompting countermeasures," it stated.

The precise connection between Flame and the malware that targeted Iran's oil industry is still unknown.

Last week, researchers from Kaspersky Lab said a chunk of code found in an early version of Stuxnet contained the same fingerprints found in Flame. The binary from 2009 included an exploit of what was then an undocumented vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system, a revelation that brings the number of zero-day security flaws targeted by Stuxnet to five. Kaspersky Lab expert Roel Schouwenberg speculated that Flame was a precursor to Stuxnet and was used as a "kick-starter" to get the latter project going.

Flame was a highly stealthy rootkit that used the work of world-class cryptographers and mathematicians to spread from machine to machine, even on hardened networks. After infecting a system, it manipulated microphones, cameras, and Bluetooth functions to spy on people in the immediate vicinity. It was also able to cross "air-gapped" networks which aren't connected to the Internet by stashing interception communication on USB drives. While other espionage programs have many of the same capabilities, Flame's sophistication was the ability to bundle all of this together in a 20-megabyte collection of binaries that worked seamlessly.

Stuxnet was a worm programmed to replicate on computers in Iranian enrichment facilities. Once in place, it caused malfunctions by forcing uranium centrifuges to spin too fast or too slow, while simultaneously reporting operations were running normally.

Promoted Comments

I just hope I die of old age before this all comes to critical mass, although that is highly unlikely. The future looks quite bleak from my point of view. If we spent all the money from these malware projects on space exploration and/or alternative energy sources, we would have been far better off. I might have been able to get off this crappy rock by now, because this is only going to get worse.

And like the confirmation that Stuxnet received the explicit backing from two US presidents, the latest confirmation could harm US interests by touching off a cyber-arms race and making it harder for US officials to argue against their use.

I said it in the last article, and I'll say it again in this one: That statement is BS. State-sponsored cyber-espionage/sabotage has been going on and increasing for at least a decade, if not a lot longer (with the USA being the primary target of the ROtW), and will continue to increase whether or not the USA participates or admits participating. The only thing that has changed is now the rest of the countries playing this game know that the USA also knows how to play, and play very well.

So much for the third world war being fought with sticks and stones...

That's the fourth world war. Which will likely still happen once someone hijacks someone else's nukes (or breaks every computer everywhere).

So, these are the two worst bits of malware (in that happened to be found), and they're incredibly good. I'm fairly certain the "Olympic Games" has more than two events, so how many more bits are out there already and have been for years?

Stuff like this goes on far more often than is reported in the media. Who knows what China are Russia are trying to do to us right now and vice versa, but I don't think we're going to go to actual war with either anytime soon

Kind of amazing to see this, considering the upset that resulted from the earlier leaks. People can't keep their mouths shut, even after congress starts discussing appointing a special prosecutor? New plan: anyone who maintains a blog, Twitter account, or Facebook should have their security clearance revoked, because clearly something about the modern age has resulted in people not being able to shut up.

And for those who said that there is more of this going on, I will just quote the Washington Post article:

Quote:

“This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. “Cyber collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.”

I just hope I die of old age before this all comes to critical mass, although that is highly unlikely. The future looks quite bleak from my point of view. If we spent all the money from these malware projects on space exploration and/or alternative energy sources, we would have been far better off. I might have been able to get off this crappy rock by now, because this is only going to get worse.

The bigger shock is that once again an American inside source trying to make Obama look like a hero blames Israel, while the Israeli's can keep their mouth shut even though they are being screwed over.

Confirmed - according to 'unnamed people in the know' western media have a liberal view on the whole 'confirmation' thing... In unrelated news - according to unnamed anonymous internet sources - It is confirmed that JFK was shot by giant nazi space lizards./sarcasm

Seriously guys - How in the name of all things sweet and silicon-y can you slap the tag 'Confirmed' again based on 'unnamed' sources? Next time 'round try to actually dig up corroborating evidence instead BEFORE you start the whole 'G-men did it!'. Hell,by the same 'thorough' journalistic token one can disprove that the US Government can't have done it and point out to the various debacles - ie the whole 'let's waste 6 billion on a one-size-fits-all radio'

I just hope I die of old age before this all comes to critical mass, although that is highly unlikely. The future looks quite bleak from my point of view. If we spent all the money from these malware projects on space exploration and/or alternative energy sources, we would have been far better off. I might have been able to get off this crappy rock by now, because this is only going to get worse.

We've been saying that kind of thing for centuries now, ever since the Enlightenment. We'll survive, and it will probably be ok, even if the journey there sucks.

And it will probably suck. But that's OK. Mankind's journey has always sucked.

If it's true that Flame and Stuxnet were created by the U.S. and Isreal, then are citizens of those countries committing treason by talking about them publicly? When we discuss how Flame works, what it might be used for, and the mere fact that it exists, are we not "aiding and abetting the enemy," an act (in the US) punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or even death?

The bigger shock is that once again an American inside source trying to make Obama look like a hero blames Israel, while the Israeli's can keep their mouth shut even though they are being screwed over.

Keep hitting refresh, my friend! Fox News may put out another talking point for you to echo and you can look ever-so-smart!

Israel will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, full stop. They will take whatever action they deem necessary to prevent Iran from developing or acquiring them.

The US does not want a full blown shooting war between them, because if Iran and Israel start shooting at each other others are going to jump in. Israel has the means and will to glass anyone who attacks them if they feel they have no other option. Even in a conventional war the non-Israeli casualties will be ugly.

Flame was designed to facilitate future cyberweapons like Stuxnet, whose purpose is to delay Iranian nuclear research in a controlled, predictable, non-lethal, and covert fashion. The US isn't trying to start a war with Flame, Stuxnet, and whatever else happens to be trawling it's way through Iranian information systems right now. It's trying to prevent one, or at the very least, delay the Iranian program long enough for saner heads to prevail.

That's by far the most likely scenario. The US has nothing to gain by getting itself into a shooting war with anyone right now, much less another Arab country, and the US has nothing to gain by the entire region going up in flames if Israel feels forced to act. Israel has nothing to gain by going to war as long as another option exists in their minds. The reasons why each involved party is behaving in a particular way or wants/does not want a particular thing (e.g. oil) are immaterial to what this program is designed to do. The political, religious, ethnic, etc. components are immaterial. The reality is that right now on the Earth, a cyberweapons campaign to prevent Iran from building the bomb is a net good thing for everyone. You can argue the political "why" of the entire affair from any angle until you are blue in the face, but right now nobody in their right mind should want Iran to have the bomb, because if they do, there will be a seriously ugly war over there.